TAKE NOTES, DONALD

08.12.13

AOL CEO Fires Staffer on Call

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg, via Getty

On Friday, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong took the phrase "you're fired" to a whole new level when he casually let go of a staffer during a conference call with 1,000 employees. “Abel, put that camera down, now," he told the soon-to-be fired creative director of Patch, the company's local news network. “Abel, you’re fired. Out," he continued. But the most shocking part of the audio clip—which was retrieved by media news blogger Jim Romensko and quickly became public—came next, when Armstrong continued the meeting, business as usual. The public termination was the first of its kind for AOL, but won't be the last: the company plans to lay off “hundreds” in the coming weeks.